Okay, now I judge this guy:
Too tortured to live, too interesting to watch interact with and fuck up the ecosystem to die.
He's like the OG fucked up guy. His issues have issues. He's fascinating to watch. He's broken in ways you didn't know a guy could be broken. Delicious.
Looks: 10/10
Tortured guy issues: 1000/10
Derangement: we're-going-to-need-a-bigger-chart/10
Unhealthy coping mechanisms: 1000/10
Other: +95729374 for everything else about him
Total: he's-so-fucked-up/10
If he's your fave hot guy, well you probably just watched the show. A hundred thousand prayers for us all. We love this fucked up disaster, because he's like if someone went 'oh hey what if we take lots of fucked up shit, shove it into one guy, and dial it up to max, but he's still loveable'. If we or someone we care about has an issue, Paddy probably has that issue too. He's our guy. Our fucked up, deranged, tortured guy. He is here to bear our burdens, and to be sexy while doing it. We want him to be worse. We want him to get better. He'll do both at the same time, somehow. Very, very talented.
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Perhaps the funniest League of Legends character interaction that's also highly plausible in-universe, thematically appropriate and emotionally charged is Rell and Veigar teaming up.
They’re both extremely magically strong and skilled. Rell controls metal, a product of the earth from which she can directly rip ore. Veigar draws his celestial magic from the stars.
They both have dark, tragic backstories: because of their magical talent, they were taken into custody by powerful, corrupt Noxian authorities, isolated, abused and forced to use their magic harmfully for a long time, at least relative to their respective lives. This traumatized and broke them so much that they now see inflicting pain as the only thing they’re good at, even capable of. They have no friends. They've never known or have forgotten what it feels like to be loved, joyful or carefree. All they were left with once free was so much guilt and grief and so much power. From that, they have forged new identities - roles to play - built around singular, combative ambitions that they cannot imagine lives or futures beyond. Rell identifies as a gritty, edgy antihero, having noble intentions but using brutal, destructive and downright gruesome methods. Veigar identifies as a villain, but is good at heart despite not comprehending this himself.
They’re both currently roaming around the Noxian countryside in order to find and defeat as many powerful, corrupt Noxian authorities who mistreat people as they can. Rell does this to make the guilty pay for their crimes and liberate and protect the oppressed. Veigar does it to replace the authority and prove that his evil is greater and cooler than theirs, but in practice doesn’t really bother hurting anyone innocent and just ends up making the guilty pay for their crimes and liberating and protecting the oppressed.
They’re both connected to Mordekaiser, and would be primary enemies of him holding personal grudges if his plot about trying to dominate Runeterra is ever developed. Rell was such an important project for the Black Rose because they hoped that she would be able to defeat Mordekaiser. He embodies everything she stands against. Mordekaiser was Veigar’s captor and abuser, responsible for who he is today. Rell can manipulate metal; Veigar wields incredible cosmic magic; and Mordekaiser is a magical suit of armour, so if anyone can finish him off, it’s these two working together.
Rell is practical, pragmatic, cynical and consumed by bloodthirsty, vengeful rage. Veigar clings to and imitates an immature ideal of Villainy, fashioning his outfit after Mordekaiser’s stereotypical fantasy evil overlord aesthetic, his behaviour after all the most theatrical tropes that archetype can be associated with and having very dramatic and flashy magic, but inwardly lacks the cruelty (not to mention dignity) to back that presentation up.
They both want the Noxian people to respect them as a threat. Rell has wanted posters and become widely feared by the elite army less than a year since her escape. Veigar has been ‘conquering’ for centuries and is still not taken seriously.
Their respective magic colours are yellow and purple, and the rest of both of their colour palettes is grey, silver and black.
Everything about Rell is played completely straight. Almost everything about Veigar is played for comedy.
Rell could come across a village that Veigar has seized and accidentally benefitted, like Boleham in his story on the website, and try to challenge him. Or they could both arrive to kill the same tyrannical warlord at the same time. She realizes that he is a) really bad at being bad, b) just a silly little guy and c) an extremely useful asset to her quest.
So she directs him at the Black Rose and they go and utterly fuck Noxis up while helping the downtrodden. There's so much comedy to get out of their contrasting personalities and perspectives. Rell always acts like the protagonist of a grim, action-packed young adult dystopian series and Veigar is standing right next to her emanating campy children's cartoon villain energy; they both think the story is a different genre and the acting and tone should reflect that. This premise is hysterical with the proper execution.
But it isn't just funny! They can genuinely bond and learn, or in Veigar's case remember, what loving and being loved is, and begin to process their trauma and help each other cope with their C-PTSD and be kinder to themselves and have fun and become fulfilled. And then kill Mordekaiser, whose return is one of the subplots. And then live happy, safe, peaceful lives together, because they were never meant for all this violence.
Other subplots besides Mordekaiser include LeBlanc, Rell's mother and the Black Rose's operations; the wider Noxian politics they tie into; Samirah hunting Rell; Annie also wandering around Noxis causing trouble and eventually getting adopted by Rell as a little sister (they deserve it); maybe the story of a Yordle who knew Veigar before and thus can supply some of his backstory that he's forgotten, a 'normal Yordle' foil to him; and generally lots of Noxian and Yordle worldbuilding and lore.
While I'm talking about Veigar, here are my ideas for a redesign of him, because his design is... not that great:
As yordles are generally animalistic or at least furry, he strongly resembles a black cat, with gold eyes with slit pupils and a dark purple nose. Black cats are associated with the supernatural, magical arts and misfortune, they're bad omens to some, but they're also fluffy little babies. He is covered in fur. You want to scratch his checks. You want to kiss his little forehead. He's so adorable and he hates it. His large pointy ears, visible under the brim of his hat, move to signal his emotions for more expressive animation. They both have notches, which help him look pitiable and allude to his past as a prisoner and victim of abuse. He has big 'weathered street cat hissing and growling at you when you try to pet it because it's reflexively afraid of people and shows that through aggression' energy.
@ohnoitstbskyen's idea in his "What's the deal with Veigar?" video that Veigar's face (his cute kitty face!) is never fully in the shadow of his hat despite him trying to look mysterious and ominous is brilliant. He’s very lively, since he acts like a classic cartoon villain who’s so excited and gleeful about being evil, so he has a habit of jostling his hat or lifting his head to reveal his whole face and then hastily pulling the hat back down.
His robe no longer has the spiked metal hem and is of a soft, loose, flowing fabric. It’s dark indigo with silver sparkles all over it like he’s wearing the night sky, in homage to the stars he draws his power from. Except the beautiful pattern is interrupted and partly obscured by a leather belt - not spiked and black, a bolder and more ‘evil’ colour than brown and a Noxian colour - with a tasteless spiky silver buckle that clashes with the stars. I love what TB Skyen said about the armour and spikes working best as a parody of Mordekaiser’s aesthetic, so I want those aspects to look tacked on and out of place. To feel wrong. Inadvertently on Veigar’s part, but deliberately in a meta sense. Between the robe, his big purple wizard hat matching his nose that also makes his body look smaller and cuter and the black cat associations, you’ve got a perfectly good yordle celestial mage design; but the influence of Mordekaiser is intruding on it, corrupting it, even. That is the clear conflict of this design. While the robe is comfortable, the armour doesn’t appear to be. This impression is helped by it all being at least a little oversized, because Noxian armour doesn’t come in yordle size and therefore Veigar has cobbled his together out of scraps he scavenged (I mean, he STOLE, how wicked) and he isn’t really a great blacksmith. His boots aren’t clown shoes or anything, but they’re big enough that his attempt at an imposing villainous stride is awkwardly clunky. They could have black leather straps on them to hold them tighter than their metal fasteners will allow. His spiked pauldrons were cut out of human ones and still jut out too much, one of them having an irregular shape that gives him a dash of Noxian asymmetry and marks him further as a flawed imitation of a fantasy supervillain. The message that he’s incompetent at something and did it anyway out of passion, perhaps not even realizing his mistakes or at least too proud to acknowledge them, makes him come across as comedic and yet an endearingly earnest, hardworking underdog, and adds to the surprise of his genuine incredible cosmic power - he couldn’t learn to smith properly before forging his own armour, but he can command the energy of the stars to smite you? Yeah. That’s Veigar. There’s one silver ring around the base of his hat that has five spikes on it, thick, long and evenly positioned so that from above, they form a star shape. Specifically, an inverted star with one spike pointing directly forward. Symbolism! His belt buckle could also be an inverted star to establish that as a motif of his; it’s spiky, but more personal and iconic than just spikes themselves.
Moving onto Rell... she has her sigils. I don't know why she doesn't in her model or artwork, they're such a crucial part of her character design! Her biography and short story both bring them up. There are even bare sections of her arms, which would only make sense if her sigils were visible in them because it's impractical and she's so averse to vulnerability, but the sigils are missing? What? Why, Riot? So yeah, in my redesign she has sigils right down both her arms. A few more recent ones are on her back (symbolic of her betrayal by her family, the Black Rose and the government). They're always hidden, even in her lighter armour on horseback, as she's deeply uncomfortable around the concept of being exposed and seeing them herself. We and Veigar only see them in dramatic character exploration scenes when a) she feels safe enough to take her armour off, b) she needs to due to injury or to hide her identity or c) someone else damages or removes her armour. Taking TB Skyen's advice again, her outer armour and therefore horse are spikier and less polished and regular, products of her undiluted heartbroken rage in the moment she destroyed the academy. They're highly distinctive, almost organic-feeling and definitely don't look like the work of a smith.
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I have a question about Gywn in UtB. I know what he said about how he feels now that Efnisien's out of the house, but I also remember Gwyn's nearly as unreliable a narrator as Efnisien. He went to visit and bring Ef clothes. I'm wondering if Gwyn's feeling in a similar situation to Ef from SotS after Gwyn left. Like the family dynamic is very off. Or Gwyn's version of it is anyway. It would make a nice narrative circle. And might effect future choices...? Or GC Gwyn is just a dick. Or both.
Hiya,
Gwyn is pretty terrible in this universe, I've always wanted to write a dark!Gwyn, and this is definitely a path to that.
I don't know if Gwyn is feeling like Efnisien re: Spoils. I'd say if anything, he certainly hasn't made any decisions to try and save Efnisien's life yet, so he's still firmly in the 'malicious coward' category and not like Efnisien at the end of Spoils who had found some courage/bravery to save Gwyn's life. Bringing someone clothes doesn't save anyone's life, the USB Efnisien gave to Augus and Gwyn was the thing that gave Gwyn his freedom, saved his life, and made him a millionaire in the process. The two aren't super comparable.
Imho for them to get there, Gwyn would need to have enough capacity for self-reflection to realise he needs to intervene and actively help save Efnisien's life, and then do something that directly puts his life in danger in the process.
I don't think he'd do that in this universe.
That doesn't mean he wouldn't help Efnisien, it just means that he'd do it in a way that protected himself first and foremost. This Gwyn doesn't have like... a mental disorder (like FFS Efnisien), he's a peak alpha who genuinely enjoys having power and control over others, and he's got a fair amount of control over Crielle as well. He's not really her victim the same way Efnisien was in FFS.
I do think there will be some similar narrative homages/acknowledgements, but imho, Gwyn's not there yet, and I don't really feel he's capable of the same kind of growth as like... FFS Efnisien. Partly because he literally doesn't have PTSD or a mental disorder or anything like that, he has no reason to change, and partly because Efnisien's memory isn't really that unreliable.
Gwyn incestuously (re: the mounting) abused him and was horrifically violent to him all his life. Gwyn was far more of an extreme and regular abuser towards Efnisien in UtB, than Efnisien was to Gwyn in FFS/Spoils. And we have never seen Gwyn have the kind of flashbacks towards Efnisien traumatising him in Spoils, as we've seen Efnisien have of Gwyn in UtB. In that sense, you can also just go by the concrete nature of what the audience is seeing in the story. Gwyn just doesn't flashback to what Efnisien does to him in the same way, meanwhile Efnisien's terror makes him immediately vomit, when Gary mounts him in Underline the Black.
So in that sense while there are similarities in the reversals, I don't want them to be a 1:1 comparison, because that's just...not really my favourite kind of AU to write. Like, there's already narrative circles in this story without them needing to be 'identical but just with different characters.' Y'know? I don't want to be like 'this is the same but' so much as 'this pays homage / makes nods to the original in these moments, and completely departs in these other moments' so I get to feel like I am actually writing an entirely new story.
Gwyn is a more extreme abuser with less likelihood of genuine change or redemption. That doesn't mean he won't try and keep Efnisien alive in the future, it just means his motivations will be different, and he's not going into like, an FFS arc or anything like that.
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Okay, I just read Volume 20 of the manga and I have a lot of thoughts...but one that I really want to spit out is about Akutagawa's death.
During the fight, he CONTINUOUSLY brings up Dazai. How he wants Dazai's approval. How he's going to LIVE and make it back to Dazai. How he doesn't have much time left so he really needs that approval before he expires. Basically, him (ironically) associating living and Dazai together. To get Dazai's acknowledgement is to live.
And yet.
And YET.
His death wasn't an accident, at least not entirely.
Even Fukuchi acknowledged that from the beginning, taking into account the space-time sword, Akutagawa's plan was to let ONLY Atsushi escape.
Did Akutagawa know he would be instakilled? I think he strongly suspected it considering how Fukuchi was doing his best to kill them.
Essentially, what I'm saying is that provided all that context, Akutagawa basically CHOSE to die when throughout the whole fight his only thought was to live, live, live (for Dazai). The arc isn't over yet (and I honestly have little faith this will happen) but I'm gonna hope anyway that this is symbolic of Akutagawa finally letting go of his deep desire to live for Dazai's approval and maybe starting to build something new...a new reason to live?
As in, him choosing death - choosing ATSUSHI - was his way of saying, "Okay. I see only one of us can make it out...I can't fight this man and beat him (which he did say). I won't live for Dazai's approval now. I can't. So I'll instead choose to die so that there is a chance Atsushi can save the world and clear the Agency's name."
Basically, I'm playing on the age old death and rebirth motif to say Akutagawa dying for Atsushi rather than living for Dazai's approval is his way of growing from his past obsessions and perhaps beginning to build a new reason to live (by dying for it heh...).
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